This invention relates generally to the field of cat toys and more specifically to an elastic cord cat toy assembly.
Toys specifically designed to engage cats in playful activity are well known. Toys such as fake mice, feathers and balls have all been marketed and sold to cat lovers in order to give their cats items to play with in place of their natural hunting activity that occurs in the wild.One such cat toy was invented by Tom Lettau et al in U.S. Pat. No. 6,314,913. This invention describes a cat toy at the end of a string which is attached to a modified fishing reel. The user can dangle the cat toy and then wind the string back up onto the reel to create movement of the play toy at the end of the string.Although the fishing reel concept does provide a novel way to entertain a cat, it has several deficiencies. Firstly, to use that toy, the user must unwind the string or cast the string out, as is done when casting for a fish. Either activity is time consuming and may cause the cat to loose interest when a cast toy lands too far away from the cat. Furthermore, the toy at the end of the string can not be twisted and turned by the user because the string is too thin and limp to be able to transfer any twisting action imparted to the string by the user to the cat toy attached to the string. Finally, the non elastic nature of the string prevents the ability to produce an instant shooting out action of the toy.